String-pullers supreme – prince and architect are two of a kind

The architect Richard Rogers is a fine one to attack the arrogance and elitism of his royal sparring partner

Richard Rogers is amused to recall the appalled reaction of his Italian mother, a committed socialist, to his first big step on the society ladder in Britain: "What the hell do you want to be knighted for?" That was in 1991. Five years later this most fashionable architect, for whom alone the term "champagne socialist" might have been coined, went on to become a life peer and is now Baron Rogers of Riverside.

Not everyone loves a lord, however, and being part of the British Establishment doesn't mean you necessarily have it all your own way, even in architecture. As he has made sure all the world knows, Rogers is furious that his firm has been dropped from the project of redeveloping the site of the old Chelsea Barracks next to Wren's Royal hospital.

Rogers attributes this to the intervention of the Prince of Wales with the site's owners, the